Windows 8 may be the cats ass afterall

[The Man]

Android apps running on windows 8


A collaboration between AMD and software firm Bluestacks lets the devices run the 500,000 apps more usually found on Android phones.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19756734

I may end up getting a copy yet.

For those already having W8 or tried it in beta.

Can you "work around" the new user interface and operate the pc in "Windows 7" mode

 

[Stone]

That certainly helps the existing situation.
But will they run on the 'metro' interface or on the conventional desktop? or both?

I just can't think of anything Android I'd use on my desktop or laptop I don't already have....and I'm not into handhelds.

For those already having W8 or tried it in beta.

Can you "work around" the new user interface and operate the pc in "Windows 7" mode

From some of the reviews and comparisons I've read of the win 8 pre-releases out there....there was a running change in pre-releases that broke the first work-arounds, but new ones popped up. No doubt there will be more, but the early ones are 'hacker' sourced and security and reliability are naturally questionable.
It will be interesting to see how the big box brands address this. I don't see the 'metro' look being popular on desktops and an option to boot to a conventional desktop necessary from a sales angle. But only time will tell and that's getting close.

I am going to order the $14.99 upgrade ( associated with buying a recent win7 computer ), but more because it's too good a deal to pass up.
I won't be installing it at this time.
BTW......that particular upgrade is to Win8 Pro, not Win 8 Home Premium.
Unfortunately......there seems to be no XP mode in the new Win8 Pro for those that need XP for apps that won't run on Win 8.
There is a new virtualization app, but you'll need to already own or buy a license for XP, it's not included as it was in win7 Pro.


I've had to use the compatibility feature of Win 7 to install much of the software I run and virtualization will likely become more important for me as new versions of Windows come out.....or I'll have to buy new apps to keep up with MS.

If I update my new HP that came with Win 7 Pro....with Win 8 Pro.......I lose the XP mode feature.
Any businesses that rely on XP mode aren't going to be receptive to Win 8.

 

[The Man]

I dont fully understand the separate desktop modes yet ..but I have heard complaints on the new metro desktop being much less than desirable and people had been working around that.
Now that I find out it wasnt a built in feature to do the work around it brings me back to w8 being a step back.
No xp mode..also a step back.
The ability to add android apps isnt enough to out weigh the losses.
I think they should have limited w8 to tablets and phones the more I hear about now

 

[Stone]

...........................
I think they should have limited w8 to tablets and phones the more I hear about now

It is curious to develop software with the idea of it being configurable to a users demands/whims....and then lock it in to a configuration for specific hardware that intentionally impacts many users in a negative way.

 

[darkcgi]

there are a few apps that would interest me but
mostly it's not a big deal yet
it will be but not yet

 

[Stone]

What interests me more about an upgrade concerns security improvements.
Will Win 8 offer enough improved security over Win 7 to entice upgrading?
I haven't read much on this yet.


And I should point out I haven't had the first malware/spyware/adware problem with Win 7. ( knock on wood )

In the future, perhaps one day the OS will become resistant enough to defend a computer with out all the security apps we currently use.

 

[The Man]

I do remember reading somewhere there were security enhancements..every new version comes with them ofcourse.
Any enhancements are greatly welcome and for many ...just the added security of the latest MS OS could be a deciding factor.
I also have not been having problems with 7 in regard to infections...so I dont need to upgrade as far security is concerned .....But now I am curious and going to research the security enhancements..if they are major and take care of the rootkit problem that is out there,this would give me peace of mind and I would be more apt to tolerate the new GUI.

 

[Stone]

I'd definitely like to see Microsoft provide a better voice rec app.
I don't think it's improved much since Office xp and that's about a decade ago and it was garbage.

I still like DNS, but Nuance has poor customer relations and a lot of their other products seem to be suffering.
I think MS is missing out with so little attention to VR.

 

[Stone]

I've recently tried out the Win8 Consumer Preview, build 8250 in VirtualBox.

It wouldn't instal in MS Virtual PC 2007.......The Win 8 instal kept claiming my Phenom ll 840T was a 32 bit processor and errored out.
The default instal in VirtualBox was incredibly frustrating. I never found a menu for the apps I installed and when I did get on the desktop, mousing over the bottom left corner only brought up the 'start' if I rolled the mouse out of the desktop window and it immediately disappeared when mousing back over it.
I couldn't even get back to the 'Metro' screen.
Could be a problem being in a virtual environment, though.

Turning it off was easy....just close the VirtualBox session and uninstall.

If I wanted to invest serious time in the learning curve of a new OS I would rather instal a distro of Linux.

IMO......not worth the $15 upgrade offer on my new HP.

It would be interesting to see how a factory instal compares.

 

[The Man]

Looks like I will be passing on 8 and keep an eye out for a decent deal on a new desktop with 7...while I can
One of my computers is pretty old. I bought it when xp first come out..shipped from dell,the fans are getting pretty noisy now.
It has had alot of use so I cant complain..but its not really worth spending any money on...The monitor still looks great original keyboard and mouse still work fine...Time to tower hunt for for 7.

 

[Francis]

I heard Windows 8 is the cats ass if you have a new Ultrabook / PC with Touch Screen.. It basically integrates for their new phone platform that will be used and introduced for the new Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 with TS..

I just got a new laptop and stuck with Windows 7 which I really like.. Most of our applications are not Windows 8 compatible yet and probably will not be for 6 months to a year.. Our CRM program is the biggest problem..

when it does move up to a Windows 8 platform style and all the issues are mostly taken out of it, it will be interesting to use.. I have a similar application for it on my Android device but with much less capabilities..

I can see the day where I only need my Tablet..

 

[Stone]

Looks like I will be passing on 8 and keep an eye out for a decent deal on a new desktop with 7...while I can
One of my computers is pretty old. I bought it when xp first come out..shipped from dell,the fans are getting pretty noisy now.
It has had alot of use so I cant complain..but its not really worth spending any money on...The monitor still looks great original keyboard and mouse still work fine...Time to tower hunt for for 7.

I'm using an Acer with XP Home in a home-office setting. It's not networked.
It runs all the office apps I need, but they are getting 'long in the tooth'.
Some , like Paperport 8, won't run all their features in a Win 7 environment and the reviews of the updates seem to have complaints.
I might have to keep that Acer going just so I don't have to upgrade my apps

Staples has been running some interesting deals and I recently picked up an i7 HP at Newegg for $650.
I suspect the OEMs will be building win 7 desktops for a while just as they did with XP, maybe even longer.

 

[darkcgi]

Its basically win 7 with a front end like windows phone
its quite nice but I didn't get to use it on a computer with a touch screen

 

[Catavenger]

Afriend of mine tried the Beta version he said not to bother with it on a laptop or PC. It makes everthing look like a tablet so is really pointless for a laptop or PC.

 

[Stone]

Now might be a good time to start thinking about an alternative OS in the future.
To give Win 8 a test run, I installed both VirtualBox and MS Virtual PC 2007.
The MS Virtual PC 2007 turned out to be a bit of a dud, but I've been playing around with Win2k and Mint installed in VirtualBox and that's working well.
It's been a while since I've installed a Linux distro. I find Mint fairly easy to transition to....but still not the apps coverage that I'm used to with MS Windows.
It does seem to have the office apps covered well with LibreOffice, though.

I was impressed when my scanner and printer were identified automatically and the drivers installed with no effort or input. Both worked properly.
DVD movies play well also.
If I wasn't already set up with MS, I could see Mint as a potential alternative.

Hope it doesn't change radically like the direction MS seems to be going.

 

[The Man]

Its basically win 7 with a front end like windows phone
its quite nice but I didn't get to use it on a computer with a touch screen

I think it would be fine for a phone or tablet...actually more handy...but with a pc..running the little mouse around works great.
I played around on an i pad about a year ago...it was ok..but a mouse would have come in handy many times..Just for basic surfing the touch interface was ok...but if you wanted to do more it become a hindrance,for me anyway.

 

[The Man]

Now might be a good time to start thinking about an alternative OS in the future.
To give Win 8 a test run, I installed both VirtualBox and MS Virtual PC 2007.
The MS Virtual PC 2007 turned out to be a bit of a dud, but I've been playing around with Win2k and Mint installed in VirtualBox and that's working well.
It's been a while since I've installed a Linux distro. I find Mint fairly easy to transition to....but still not the apps coverage that I'm used to with MS Windows.
It does seem to have the office apps covered well with LibreOffice, though.

I was impressed when my scanner and printer were identified automatically and the drivers installed with no effort or input. Both worked properly.
DVD movies play well also.
If I wasn't already set up with MS, I could see Mint as a potential alternative.

Hope it doesn't change radically like the direction MS seems to be going.

I played with mint for a while in the past as well...I liked it for a linux distro.
Studio Ubuntu was another good one {as one didnt have to go chase codecs}.
I wasnt able to get my printer/scanner working..but I havent tried a recent distro.
But back when I was playing with them...the new distros kept getting better and better.
I used to have to chase a fix for the sound and wireless card...I didnt have the problem with the last couple releases.

W7 as solid as it is did let me down several weeks ago.
My PC was getting a little sluggish....I have an image I made with most of the programs I already use.
I also back up my media such as pictures videos documents about one a month.
I copy and paste them to a separate partition on the HD as well as to an external HD.
I then delete the media from my user profile on C...This way I dont have thousands of files in my user folder
If windows were to crash and I reformatted or recovered with an image...my media files are safe.
Also I use C/profile /folders just for recent work then copy it over about one a month to the other partition as well as the external.

Any way I had been a little lazy and had 3 months worth of files accumulated in documents pictures etc.
I copy and pasted them over to my other partition and to my external....then done my image recovery as my machine was lagging a little.

After I copied and pasted them I looked again to make sure I didn't miss any folders.
Did my image recovery.
Windows cant see the files I copied over to my other partition or the external.
All the other files I have copied over still show...just my last copy and pastes before the image recovery are no where to be found.
I booted a knoppix cd to explore...they dont show while booted with the CD either.
Somehow my files become MIA after the copy and pastes....I think they are still there but just cant be seen as windows made an error somewhere along the line....a rather bad error as I cant see them while booted into knoppix as well.

I have never had an OS perform such a major error...its a bad strike as I have spent numerous hours trying to find the right tool{s} to make my missing files visible and am about to just consider them gone

 

[Stone]

My condolences on lost data.
In setting up a new computer, now days I move the 'My Documents' system folder to a different partition on my main drive and then back-up to different destinations/media in case of a drive failure.
I prefer Syncback, Karen's Replicator and Quicksync3 ....to copy and paste.
Earlier versions of Nero would let you burn a 'My Documents' file and then would automatically update for a backup....but the last version I know to do that....Nero 6....won't run on Win7.....made for quick backups, too.

No data, documents or media files are ever saved to my C partition in case I have to re-image.
And I did have to re-image frequently with 98se.
That's were I learned to become obsessive about back-ups.

 

[The Man]

Somehow after my copy and paste it didnt "update" the partitions or something...very odd...especially the files on the external.
I havent written to D or my external since just in case do run across a way to get them to show.
I wasnt worried about it at first...as I thought it would fix itself during a reboot..but no go.
After booting the knoppix CD and it not seeing them either I started to get concerned.

 

[The Man]

My condolences on lost data.
In setting up a new computer, now days I move the 'My Documents' system folder to a different partition on my main drive and then back-up to different destinations/media in case of a drive failure.
I prefer Syncback, Karen's Replicator and Quicksync3 ....to copy and paste.
Earlier versions of Nero would let you burn a 'My Documents' file and then would automatically update for a backup....but the last version I know to do that....Nero 6....won't run on Win7.....made for quick backups, too.

No data, documents or media files are ever saved to my C partition in case I have to re-image.
And I did have to re-image frequently with 98se.
That's were I learned to become obsessive about back-ups.

Which one would you consider the most stable for a large quantity of files..62,215 at the moment.
I had used the western digital software at one time but started getting a little nervous when it would appear to hang up...never lost any thing though